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LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

863 BROADWAY. 



JTo. 79. 



A LETTER TO HON. E. D. MORGAN, 

SENATOR OF THE UNITED STATES, 



ON THE 



AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION ABOLISHING SLAVERY. 



RESOLUTIONS, 

PASSED BY THE NEW YORK UNION LEAGUE CLUB 



CONCERNING 



CONDITIONS OF PEACE WITH THE INSURGENTS. 



BY FRANCIS LIEBER. 



FRANCIS LIEBER, 

President. 

J. A. STEVENS, 

Secretary. 

W. T. BLODGETT, 

Ck. Executive Com. 




MORRIS XETCHUM, 

Treasurer. 

LE GRAND B. CANNON, 
Ch. Finance Com. 

JAMES McKATE, 

Ch-J^ublication Com. 



NEW YORK. 

1865. 






A LETTER TO SENATOR E. D. MORGAN, ON THE AMENDMENT 
OF THE CONSTITUTION EXTINGUISHING SLAVERY. 

Sir : As the election on the eighth of November last has added 
one of the highest national acts to the history of our kind, so 
the amendment of the Constitution, which yesterday passed th<' 
House of Representatives, will be the greatest effect of the pres- 
ent revolt, if three fourths of the State Legislatures will give 
their assent, as we all hope they will do. 

The same year, 1788, saw the framing of our Constitution and 
the first cultivation of the cotton plant in Georgia; and in course 
of time this plant caused renewed vitality and expansion to Slav- 
ery, festering in our great polity, until the gangrene broke out in 
the deep woe of a wide and bitter civil war. The year 1865 will 
cure our system of this poisonous malady. Seventy-seven years 
is a long period ; the reckless Rebellion has brought grief to all, 
and anguish to many hearts ; but if the effect of this fearful 
period be the throwing off of the malignant virus, the nation will 
stand purified, and the dire inconsistency which hasexistel bo 
! our Bill of Rights of the Fourth of July, and our 
ig protection of extending bondage, will at last pae 
away. Tic sacrifices which we have made will not have b 
too great. 

The amendment which is now offered to the American people 
runs tliu- : 

" Neither Slavery nor Involuntary Servitude, except as a pun- 
fob crihe, WHEREOF THE PARTY SHALL HAVE BEEN DULY CON- 
ED, SHALL EXIST WITHIN THE U.NITED STATES OR ANY PLACE SUBJECT 
To THEIR JURISDICTIDH." 

These are simple and straightforward words, allowing of ao 
equivocation, yet, considered in connection with certain passages 
of the Constitution, thej require some remarks, which 1 address 
to you, Sir, as one of the (Jnited State- Senators from New York, 

and a^ iny Qeighbor in this city. 

The amendment extinguishes Slavery in the whole dominion of 
the [Jnited States. The Constitution as it now stands (Article l. 
sections, paragraph 8), however, directs thai Representatives 
" shall be apportioned among the several States, which may be 
included within the Union, according to their respective numbers, 
which shall be determined by adding to the whole number ^<( fre< 
persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and 
lit Indians qoI taxed, three fifths of all other persons." 
If, then, "all other persons/' thai is slaves, are declared free, 
• vision of the Constitution is nol amended, 
jimplj add two fifths to the basis of apportionment of Repre- 
ss ntatives in the Southern States in other words, the number of 
B I from the States in which Slavery 

will be iii creased i>\ the presenl amendment. As, 

'Ob 



J 

3 

however, these States, and especially those in which the colored 
citizens exceed in number the whites, will not give the common 
suffrage to the citizens of African extraction (as indeed many of 
the Northern States, for instance, Pennsylvania, do not give it, 
and as other States give the right of voting to colored people, on 
the condition of possessing freeholds only), the result of the 
amendment as now proposed, without a supplementary amend- 
ment, would be an increased number of Southern Representatives 
in Congress of the same number of white citizens. In this case 
the Rebellion, though ultimately subdued at the cost of torrents 
of our blood and streams of our wealth, would be rewarded with 
an enlarged representation. No loyal citizen can wish for such 
a consummation. How is this difficulty to be avoided ? 
Let us first remember the following three points : 

1. In the practice of every State of the Union those citizens 
vote for electors of the President of the United States who have 
the right to vote for Representatives in Congress. Immediately 
after the adoption of the Constitution of the United States the 
Legislatures of several States elected the electors ; but a more 
national spirit soon prevailed and in all the different States of the 
Union the people elected the electors except in South Carolina. 
There the Legislature retained the election of electors down to 
the breaking out of the Rebellion, on the avowed ground that 
thus the State obtained a greater influence, this election of elec- 
tors in South Carolina always taking place after the election by 
the people had been consummated in all the other States. 

2. In every State those citizens who have a right to vote for 
the most numerous branch of the State Legislature have also the 
right to vote for Members of Congress. 

3. In every State of the Union it is the State itself which de- 
termines by its own Constitution who shall have the right to vote 
for members of the State Legislature. 

These considerations, then, would lead to the suggestion that 
the apportionment of members of Congress ought to be made 
according to the numbers of citizens who in each State have the 
right to vote for the State Legislature or for its most numerous 
branch. 

This suggestion may be expressed in an amendment, additional 
to the one just passed, in such words as these : 

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States 
which may be included within this Union, according to the re- 
spective number of male citizens of age having the qualifications 
requisite for electing members of the most numerous branch of 
the respective State Legislatures. The enumeration of said citi- 
zens shall be made by each census of the United States. 

You will observe that the words used in this proposition of an 
amendment have been taken, as far as it was feasible, from the 
Constitution itself, Article 1, section 2, paragraphs 1 and 3. 

Believing, as I do, that this subject deserves the attention of 
the American people, I have not hesitated to make use of your 



4 



permission to address to you this public letter, and have the 
honor to be, sir, your very obedient servant, 

Francis Lieber. 

Hon. E. D. Morgan, Senator of the United State*, Washington. 
New York, February 1, 1865. 



At the monthly meeting of the New York Union League Club, 
on February 9, 1865, the following resolutions were offered by 
Francis Lieber, and unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, The American people ardently desire the re-estab- 
lishment of peace in this country ; and whereas, the conclusion 
of peace with the insurgents now in arms against the country is 
frequently called for ; and whereas, it is fit for this large asso- 
ciation of loyal citizens solemnly to express their opinion on a 
subject important to all, and pregnant with consequences both 
grave and lasting ; therefore, 

Resolved, That the American people, by all their sacrifices of 
blood and wealth, are, indeed, seeking the re-establishment of 
peace in this land, disturbed as it continues to be by its rebellious 
citizens ; but we discountenance every idea of a conclusion of 
peace with traitors as a contracting party, which would amount 
to an acknowledgment of them as a separate power capable of 
making treaties. 

Resolved, That it is a grave error to maintain that we have 
acknowledged our enemy as a belligerent in the sense oi the law 
of nations, and that tins acknowledgment gives him the standing 
..f a public enemy, capable of contracting treaties. On the con- 
trary, the United States, fur the sake of humanity only, have . im- 
plied the ndes ni' regular warfare to the present reb< llion — a 
generous conduct which the enemy has requited with barbarous 
cruelty towards "ur captured sons and brothers, and with a cal- 
lous disregard of many of the rules of humanity, faith, and honor, 

which civilized people observe in modern wars. 

Resolved, Thai no re-establishment of peace can take place, 
and that do conference with any insurgents whatever ought to I e 
i nter. d into, except «m the following basis and premises, distinct- 
ly and plainly laid down and defined, namely ■ 

I Nil srmiBt ice mi : 1 1 1 \ account : 

_'. \" foreig ii mediation ; 

N ■ la\ ery ; 
i \" assumption of the Southern debt ; 

■ \n state rights inconsistent with tin- BUpreme and para- 
mount authority of the [Jnion, and, above all, no right of seces- 

Muli ; 

6 Wo diminution of our country by one inch of land or one 
drop ' i w.it.-i . 

//• olved, That the President and Secretary communicate 
th. se resolutions to tin kindn d associations <^' the land, inviting 
them t" express their opinion on the subject of the same. 



f 60 



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